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New World of Darkness:
Mage: The Awakening – Night Horrors – The Unbidden
Apparently White Wolf put out a Night Horrors book for every line, but where Intruders is actually effective at creating horror and presenting Mage as a horror game, this was more paying lip service to the concept in a more generic book of game ideas and story hooks.
Examples are things like the “Lucid”, a bloodline of Sleepwalkers who can sense magic and tend to go crazy and become serial killers of mages. A neat hook, but not really horror as it’s presented. Similarly, there’s an example of an Abyssal “imprint” of a mage that can possess someone close to them, knows their secrets and is resistant to magic. Again, a neat hook, but the presentation makes this less about being scared or upset and more about being punished for hubris. Could these be horror games in the right hands? Sure. But none of them are inherently horrific (or more so than the core game typically is).
World of Darkness: Second Sight
This is basically World of Darkness: Sorcerer updated for NWoD, with full rules for psychic powers and low (hedge) magic; the difference mostly being that psychic powers arise spontaneously and can be used quickly, whereas low magic requires study and a ritual and extended roll for use. (This third major Numina of the OWoD, True Faith, is nowhere to be seen. Unsurprisingly, really, as it was overpowered but very hard to adjudicate.) The third chapter is dedicated to horrors from beyond (and it never says “from the Abyss”, but it’s basically the same sorts of Things from Intruders), though it takes a high-level sort of approach to them and what they could be and how they might influence a story-sized subset of humanity. As keeping with the theme of the book, a selection of rites and powers are available to those who deal with such Things.
There’s an emphasis on a lack of societies and conspiracies, and how comparatively rare these characters are. (Also, emphasis on the fact that these powers represent “lesser templates” and cannot ever overlap with other lesser templates like Ghouls or Proximi; or greater templates like Vampires, Mages or Werewolves. No munchkins!) All of the powers are specifically penalized by the presence of people who don’t believe in them—televising or debunking a power is the best way to see it spectacularly fail. If you’re going to break the masquerade, it won’t be with this power set.
The appendix is a sample story, and they try very hard to pepper the book with sample character and story hooks. Not amazing stuff, but a decent reference.
Apparently White Wolf put out a Night Horrors book for every line, but where Intruders is actually effective at creating horror and presenting Mage as a horror game, this was more paying lip service to the concept in a more generic book of game ideas and story hooks.
Examples are things like the “Lucid”, a bloodline of Sleepwalkers who can sense magic and tend to go crazy and become serial killers of mages. A neat hook, but not really horror as it’s presented. Similarly, there’s an example of an Abyssal “imprint” of a mage that can possess someone close to them, knows their secrets and is resistant to magic. Again, a neat hook, but the presentation makes this less about being scared or upset and more about being punished for hubris. Could these be horror games in the right hands? Sure. But none of them are inherently horrific (or more so than the core game typically is).
World of Darkness: Second Sight
This is basically World of Darkness: Sorcerer updated for NWoD, with full rules for psychic powers and low (hedge) magic; the difference mostly being that psychic powers arise spontaneously and can be used quickly, whereas low magic requires study and a ritual and extended roll for use. (This third major Numina of the OWoD, True Faith, is nowhere to be seen. Unsurprisingly, really, as it was overpowered but very hard to adjudicate.) The third chapter is dedicated to horrors from beyond (and it never says “from the Abyss”, but it’s basically the same sorts of Things from Intruders), though it takes a high-level sort of approach to them and what they could be and how they might influence a story-sized subset of humanity. As keeping with the theme of the book, a selection of rites and powers are available to those who deal with such Things.
There’s an emphasis on a lack of societies and conspiracies, and how comparatively rare these characters are. (Also, emphasis on the fact that these powers represent “lesser templates” and cannot ever overlap with other lesser templates like Ghouls or Proximi; or greater templates like Vampires, Mages or Werewolves. No munchkins!) All of the powers are specifically penalized by the presence of people who don’t believe in them—televising or debunking a power is the best way to see it spectacularly fail. If you’re going to break the masquerade, it won’t be with this power set.
The appendix is a sample story, and they try very hard to pepper the book with sample character and story hooks. Not amazing stuff, but a decent reference.